For those of you who swapped their Bose/Clarion stock system for an Alpine head unit, did you notice a drop in sensitivity on the FM band? I just installed mine (CDA-7995), and I am barely able, if not at all, to hear a station 70 miles away that could be heard on the Bose unit, as well as on every radio in every car I drove on the past years. I tried the ''Normal'' and ''Hi-Fi'' modes on the HU and it didn't have an effect. Specs charts indicate that the Alpine should have a sensitivity of 9.3 dBf, vs 9 dBf for most of the Clarion HU. Maybe the receiver is not up to specs, or, I hope, maybe I have a faulty antenna adapter, even if it's a simple piece of equipement (could it have something to do with the diversity antenna?)

Denis

 

I got an alpine and have the same problem. no worries, most aftermarket deck get weaker reception then the stock ones.

 

I know that GM, among others, have good receiver section in their HU. but I owned an Integra, with the stock HU made by Alpine. I assume that a high quality aftermarket unit should be at least equal in that department too, no?

 

I installed an Alpine (CDA-9813). Now I don't get ANY radio stations. I also noticed that when I tinted the windows, I lost a lot of reception with the stock HU. I was thinking of getting a glass mount antenna, plugs into the HU, run wires up behind the a-pillar and headliner, and mount it behind the rear-view mirror, directly on the windshield, they're about 20 bucks. But I think if I'm going to pull everything apart again, I'm just getting XM. And yes, I did use an antenna adapter, and everything was installed correctly.

 

I experienced weak signal also from an alpine 9811. My antenna was ripped off but even so, the old bose deck was able to pick up all of the stations clearly but the Alpine can only bring in a few clearly.

 

I have the same problem with my HU. I was wondering if anyone had tried some sort of antenna booster.

According to this, a small sensitivity value is better. That may explain why the Clarion is better than the Alpine in this area.

http://www.fanfare.com/fm-specs.html

Mike

 

Hello friends, I have an update about this situation :

http://forums.maxima.org/showthread.php?t=271168